Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Octane The difference here is audience and software sales. Japanese 3rd party games have a better chance at selling well on Switch than western 3rd party games do because there's an audience for those games on Nintendo.

Western 3rd party games are far more likely to flop on Nintendo regardless of how big the install base is, meaning they're far less likely to support the Switch.

@IceClimbers I don't think that's necessarily true. I don't think the difference is as black and white as some make it out to be. It's not as if Japanese AAA third party games sold millions on the Wii and Wii U, while western AAA third party games bombed. Anyway, that wasn't my point. BiasedSonyFan was arguing that the Switch won't be ''powerful enough'' for western developers. I don't think that matters at all. If the install base is there, they will port games to the system. And it's not as if Japanese developers would do anything differently. If some of the bigger western games are skipping the Switch, count on the big Japanese games skipping the Switch as well (if we're talking about the Switch not being able to handle those games hardware-wise).

@BiasedSonyFan You were arguing about AAA games though. Handhelds are bigger in Japan, and therefore there are more developers that develop for handhelds. That's logical. And I have no doubt that they will end up support the Switch. Whether those games get localised is another issue though..

Quick question - as far as I know Nintendo hasn't given a release date for the Switch yet, haven't they? I just saw on the mediamarkt (huge German retailer) website that you can preorder the switch there and in the comment section, a user called "Nintendo Germany" wrote that the people at Nintendo are looking forward to the release on March 11. Does anyone know if this is genuine?

http://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_switch-nintendo-3ds-kons...

I have a bad feeling that the Switch's screen will limit the performance, because it instantly switches between the TV and the small screen when you decide to continue playing outside.

@NintendoPete Don't think it is, that's a weird way for Nintendo to reveal the release date. Besides, why would they comment on pre-orders?

@Azooooz Screen doesn't have anything to do with performance fortunately.

Here's to hoping it's early March. Mainly because I want to play Breathe of the Wild as soon as possible.

That's of course assuming it's a launch title. I really hope so.

I could see March 10th/11th happening. Why? March 10 -> Mar10 -> Mario Day.

@IceClimbers Wouldn't 2 million in 3 weeks be rather poor though?

@NintendoPete (Trying hard to answer your question politely) No, it's not genuine.

March.

http://au.ign.com/articles/2016/04/27/nintendo-nx-will-launch...

@Grumblevolcano @IceClimbers @Operative @NintendoPete @Octane
When questioned about the 2 million figure, Kimishima said the following:

"we will launch it in March, the final month of the fiscal year. The fact that we can only ship for one month during this fiscal year was part of the background for determining the annual shipment number. Please also be advised that we have been preparing for a possible increase in demand as a result of the presentation and the hands-on experiences next January."

That "for one month" could be interpreted that they will sell it for one whole month before the end of the fiscal year, i.e. early March release. Or maybe I'm reading too much into his word choices. :---D
Also, they can ramp up the production if needed.

@BiasedSonyFan
I'm pretty sure I put it down as 800GFLOPs. But on a log scale and in real world use 100GFLOPs either way doesn't make much difference. Think about the much greater difference between the PS4 and XBOne and how much of a deal has been made about it. If it wasn't for digital foundry frame rate analysis I doubt anyone would have noticed the gap in actual game performance.

@BiasedSonyFan

I agree that it won't matter to third parties unless the switch is a major hit.

Here's a question that's not being asked, let's say the Switch does get some sort of meaningful third party support. Who exactly does that pull in other than gamers who still rock Nintendo only.

From a third mostly western party and consumer level the Switch is in a awkward space between two console refreshes, and it presumably won't support VR like the other two systems will.

I'm a bit curious after seeing the Pro and Switch how Microsoft plans to market the Scorpio.

Another way to look at that graph I posted earlier

@BiasedSonyFan
Sure but a lot of that depends on what people are comparing it to. It doesn't change the fact that the actual difference in content that's possible isn't really there. For example the Wii could have been a lot more powerful than it was but it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference in the perception. Imagine if the Wii had been as capable as the Vita even as a home console. Would it have changed anything in terms of public perception? Other than cost, probably not.

With the PS4 and XBOne? There's more or less no gap between them. But they're about the same price with more or less the same library of games. So all of a sudden the gap in power, as small as it is, really mattered. Even though they can basically run all the same games at more or less the same quality.

So with the Switch I don't think it matters much in the end whether it's 500GFLOPS, 1TFLOPS or somewhere between. It'll make a difference for how well games on it run for sure and fingers crossed it's leans towards the latter. But whatever it is people are still going to perceive it as underpowered. It might be the difference between 30fps and 60fps but, other than extreme edge cases, it's not going to be the difference between a port being possible or not.

It's all about the software.

I think one thing Nintendo needs is to retain exclusives like Monster Hunter, which according to the head of Capcom may now start appearing on PS4 & Xbox One to drive sales in the West, and seek to sign up new exclusive deals. Especially when Monster Hunter kept 3DS systems selling late into its life.

Nintendo should find a way to own the ip of monster hunter some way. But perhaps only after the other generations got hooked

@erv It would've helped if Nintendo bought Capcom. They already missed out on Atlus which ended up going to Sega. They could do with some more studios/developers to bolster their exclusives.

@FragRed
I don't think there's much risk of Monster Hunter not appearing on the Switch. If you break down sales of all Monster Hunter games by platform? Portable versions have outsold home console versions by ~5:1. So I think it's fair to assume that the Switch version will outsell the PS4 version. Even if it's not exclusive it probably won't matter much.